Diatribes, the second in Napalm Death’s four-album series of attempts to evolve into a kind of melodic/industrial death metal band, is easily the most vilified record in their catalog within a certain segment of their fan base. It gets accused of being their attempt to embrace groove metal, nü-metal, or whatever else the metalhead in question hates the most. In fact, it’s a sharp, creative record that finds the band exploring some of the music their friends and peers were making, without sacrificing their own fundamental identity.

Songs like “Cursed To Crawl” and “Cold Forgiveness” don’t sound anything like the Napalm Death of the past. They chug rather than blast, rolling along on a midtempo, bass-heavy groove that lets Shane Embury move into a dub-metal zone while Mitch Harris and Jesse Pintado explore post-industrial guitar tones, reminiscent of Godflesh’s Justin Broadrick, rather than their usual roar. With its mechanistic, looping structures and seething rage, “Cursed To Crawl” recalls Killing Joke, while “Cold Forgiveness,” with its chant of “The face/Behind the face/Behind the face,” has an ominous power unlike anything else in the ND catalog.

Even the faster songs are of a different nature than their previous work. Album opener “Greed Killing” is a shockingly melodic (by Napalm standards) death metal rager, while “My Own Worst Enemy” features tumbling, almost tribal drumming and “Just Rewards” moves away from the post-punk/industrial sound of most of the record, toward hardcore, with Herrera’s drums cleaner and much more prominent in the mix than usual. And the title track starts off in blazing “Greed Killing” mode, but in its final third downshifts sharply to a more Prong-like groove, with some surprisingly warped guitar work. Ultimately, Diatribes is Napalm Death’s most adventurous, and most controversial, album. But despite all the nods to Prong, Killing Joke, and Godflesh that can be heard in its grooves, it’s 100% a Napalm Death record.